Tuesday, 8 April 2014

THE EASIEST CAKE IN THE WORLD

I rarely bake cakes, cookies or make puddings for several reasons. Firstly if I regularly baked I would be the size of a house as I would pig the whole lot, and secondly however much I covet a baby pink Kitchen Aid so I can whip up a pavlova on a summer's day, I barely have room in the kitchen for an extra wooden spoon let alone anything else (bloody London houses)!Therefore when Arabella announced she wanted a Disney "Frozen" cake for her birthday party last week, I got my knickers into a bit of a twist. I found a few cakes shops who would make one personally for Arabella however they cost over £100 and so that was a big no no. In the end I had no other choice but to bake one…..thank goodness for Betty Crocker! She makes baking cakes an easy peasy process.Ingredients for 12 people:1 Betty Crocker cake mix (I used the chocolate Devil's Food one)1 tub of Betty Crocker icing (I used Buttercream)90ml vegetable oil (6 tbsp)250ml water3 medium free range eggs2 x cake tins (around 8")butter for greasing

Mix the eggs, oil, water and cake mix gently together and then whisk for a few minutes until smooth & creamy. This is hard work without an electric whisk and I seriously got a sweat on!!

Pour the mixture evenly into the two greased cake tins and cook in the oven for 23-28 minutes (or until a rounded knife inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean). I did 25 minutes and as the cakes were on different levels in the oven, I swapped them over after 13 minutes.

Once ready cool on wire racks.

I left them for about 40 minutes.Finally cover with the icing (this is never my forte as they are never as neat as I would like) and decorate.

I bought the personalised cake topper and figurines off Amazon although there are so many party shops online you are spoilt for choice. The cake topper wasn't the easiest to put on and whatever you do, don't put cling near it as it rips the thing off, but all in all it was a success. I used lots of candles to cover up the holes I made in the cake topper which Arabella loved as it meant more for her to blow out plus the figurines doubled as a birthday present. Plus the best thing of all - the kids actually ate the cake and I have had no reports of food poisoning!!!

About Me

I love food. I literally LOVE food. While I am eating breakfast, I am thinking about lunch and whilst eating lunch, I am planning supper. Then after supper when I am relaxing I am checking out dishes on food spotting, catching up on restaurant news on the Squaremeal or just reading a recipe book (although not all at the same time).....you get the picture....I am OBSESSED!!

While I have always loved a restaurant whether it be pizza express or a michelin starred one, I have only started cooking in the past couple of years. A friend recommended Fay Ripley's books and since then I have cooked from scratch non stop. I love recipe cards from the supermarkets as well as tv show recipes.

I look forward to sharing my views on restaurants and recipes with you and please let me know what you like, want more of or less of etc & if there are any places or recipes you would like me to write about.